Today in the shop "Belt sander refurbishment"

[reible]

When I got my shopsmith back in 1976 I also got a few attachments, now I don't recall if it was that year or maybe the next I got the belt sander. I know it was pretty soon on and the casting still has the "M" on it. I think it has a serial number but I'm too tired to go look it up.

Anyway I used it a lot in the "old days" and less later on because a lot of the things I was doing I could use a strip sander or hand sanders for. Then I decided to use it for a couple of projects last summer, it was working OK but seem really stiff. Then the adjusting mechanism started acting up and then went to not working at all.

I was going to repair it but then though this thing is pretty old now so maybe I should just refurbish it. Last Aug I then ordered the two main parts, the idler drum assembly and the drum assembly. At the time that was $100.41 and $101.66. I was just going to order the sleeve for the drum but it wasn't in the parts list as a separate part so I ordered the whole thing. Turns out there was a part number for just that part but I kept the assembly on order so I'd have new bearings and all.

The parts arrived in late Aug but I didn't get to installing them until tonight. It's a pretty simple job but I did a cleaning of the inside and then had to do some rust removal on the platen. The worst was the old grease on the tilt mechanism. A real pain to clean up mainly because I was doing it manually with no chemical helpers. Working in the garage with the door closed I just didn't want to deal with fumes.

It took about 2 hours to do give or take. I didn't time myself.

So I still have to power it up and adjust things but I don't see that as being much of a deal. I have some graphite clothed backed material to put on the platen but I don't know where that is so I just waxed it for now. I've had that for some years now but never seem to find the time to use it. I used in on hand belt sanders and think it will work well for this application too but I have to find it first.

Weather permitting I will power it up and check it out tomorrow or this weekend. While $202.07 sound like a lot of money keep in mind a new one runs $549.46 right now.

Perhaps one day this winter I'll take the idler apart and see if I can get it working again so I'll have a spare......... like I'll live long enough to ever need it.........

BTW I just dug in and did it, no need for a manual or that stuff it really pretty simple.

Ed

[robinson46176]

Doesn't it feel good when you finally get around to such projects...
Sadly I currently have a few thousand waiting chances to feel good.


.

[reible]

Doesn't it feel good when you finally get around to such projects...
Sadly I currently have a few thousand waiting chances to feel good.


.

So true. I actually had two feel goods, one is I got my work bench cleared off enough to work on the belt sander and then did the belt sander, no. 2..... and when I take the belt sander off the bench and put away the tools I'll have work space on the bench for another project no. 3!

Ed

[reible]

Good as new!

While I tried to mark and measure things so it would go back together pretty well adjusted that did not work out so well. The belt was no where near centered and took a lot of adjustment...... the alignment to the shopsmith was looking OK but when I ran it there was a lot of vibration. But those are fixable issues and now solved.

Since we have the rule that if there are not pictures then it didn't happen I did take a few shots along the way.

Here it is before I started:

20170629_200318_resized.jpg (422.41 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

As I said it was basically taking it apart and swapping in new drums.

20170629_203206_resized.jpg (470.16 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

20170629_203841_resized.jpg (474.42 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

And then after the tension set, belt installed and alignment done it ready to go.

20170701_120709_resized.jpg (552.01 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

Yes it has the updated dust port, a major improvement over the old one. Other then that it looks almost as good and works just like it did 40 years ago. Not a bad investment.

Ed

[algale]

I did the chute upgrade to my belt sander, too, and agree it is a big improvement.